Tag: Hill Street Blues
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Test Pilot: File #41, Homicide: Life on the Street
Test Pilot #41: Homicide: Life on the Street Debut date: January 31, 1993 Series legacy: One of the most well-respected series of all-time, but still, somehow, undervalued Hey there, party people. Welcome back to the internet’s most popular discussion* of television pilots, Test Pilot. We’re still early into our contemporary police drama theme. Before you…
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Test Pilot: File #40, NYPD Blue
Test Pilot #40: NYPD Blue Debut date: September 21, 1993 Series legacy: Descendant of Hill Street Blues, one of the catalysts for an era of grittier police dramas Hiya, folks! Welcome back to Test Pilot. This is our 40th entry and that’s simply crazy to me. Thanks to everyone who has read or written with…
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Test Pilot: File #39, Kings
Test Pilot #39: Kings Debut date: March 15, 2009 Series legacy: Yet another one of NBC’s failed late-aughts drama series Welcome back to Test Pilot guys and gals! With that extra-special Joss Whedon Theme Week behind us, it’s time to fall back into the typical, but still lovely rhythms of the feature. Today, we continue…
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Showrunner Series: Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis, Flashbacks and Self-Awareness
Welcome back to the Showrunner Series, an occasional TVS feature where I discuss the work of one or more major television voice(s). When a great, popular television series says goodbye, members of that series’ writing staff are going to be hot commodities. They’re going to be asked to run their own series, pitch their own…
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#TVFail Entry 14: CSI:, “19 Down”/”One to Go”
The accused: CSI:, “19 Down” and “One to Go” (Season 9, Episodes 9 and 10) The crime: Embodying the internal tension between character and procedural in contemporary network crime series Television’s failures are supposed to be obvious. From the overhyped non-starters that flop from the very beginning (hello, FlashForward, Lone Star) to the much-discussed clumsy…
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Test Pilot: File #25, L.A. Law
Test Pilot #25: L.A. Law Debut date: September 15, 1986 Series legacy: One of the most popular and well-respected legal dramas of all-time It’s time for a new theme in the site’s most popular ongoing feature, Test Pilot. The primary reason I started this feature almost a year ago was so that I could have…
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Friday List: The best 15 television pilots
If you’re a regular reader of TV Surveillance, you know I love a good list. Or a mediocre list. Or even a horrible list. The point is I have a lust for lists. This fall, I’d like to provide you folks with more lists than ever and hopefully that will result in a weekly or…
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Surveillance Summer Watch: Season Finale — Hill Street Blues, “Jungle Madness” Parts One and Two
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces, visit this page. Here we are folks, at…
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Surveillance Summer Watch: Hill Street Blues, “Rites of Spring” Parts One and Two
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces, visit this page. Hill Street Blues brings us a…
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Test Pilot: File #20, Remington Steele
Test Pilot #20: Remington Steele Debut date: October 1, 1982 Series legacy: A well-made production and a somewhat forgotten forerunner to series like Moonlighting; Probably known best for launching Pierce Brosnon’s career and little more Authorship is a really tricky thing and perhaps no more so than in the world of television. Numerous scholars have…
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Surveillance Summer Watch: Hill Street Blues, “I Never Promised You a Rose, Marvin” and “Fecund Hand Rose”
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces, visit this page. I really wish I had…
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Surveillance Summer Watch: Hill Street Blues, “Gatorbait” and “Life, Death, Eternity”
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces, visit this page. Although Hill Street Blues is primarily…
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Test Pilot: File #19, St. Elsewhere
Test Pilot #19: St. Elsewhere Debut date: October 26, 2982 Series’ legacy: Another jewel in the MTM crown, one of — if not the — most-heralded medical drama of all-time Authorship is a really tricky thing and perhaps no more so than in the world of television. Numerous scholars have discussed the problems with analyzing television…
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Surveillance Summer Watch: Hill Street Blues, “Up in Arms,” “Your Kind, My Kind, Humankind”
This is the newest post in 2011′s Surveillance Summer Watch series featuring Cheers and Hill Street Blues. For the next couple of months, I’ll be writing weekly reviews of episodes from each series’ first seasons, with Cheers on Tuesdays and Hill Street Blues on Thursdays. For more information, see this post and for all the SSW pieces, visit this page. When I initially heard that…
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Test Pilot: File #18, Rhoda and Lou Grant
Test Pilot #18: Rhoda and Lou Grant Debut date: September 9, 1974 and September 20, 1977 Series’ legacy: Somewhat worthy successors to the Mary Tyler Moore throne Authorship is a really tricky thing and perhaps no more so than in the world of television. Numerous scholars have discussed the problems with analyzing television with an…
CB, PhD 